Developing Understanding when Reading (Photo credit: Ken Whytock)
Since I got my Kindle, I’ve been reading a lot of books that are not necessarily best-sellers. Some of them are firsts for the author, others are from previously published authors. I always try to pay attention to writing styles when I’m reading. Of course, we all notice spelling or grammatical errors. I also notice editing or publishing errors that distract from the joy of reading.
But lately, I’ve really been paying attention to dialogue styles. It seems that some authors write their dialogue in proper grammatical form (those are probably the folks who paid the most attention in English class!). My issue with writing (and reading) dialogue written in this manner is that it’s not really how most of us speak in our everyday lives. I suppose, if we’re highfalutin’, hoity-toity, upper crust, tea and scones in the afternoon types, then that could be how we actually talk. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone like that in my life…and I sure don’t talk like that. So I tend to write dialogue as I imagine my characters speak. In my opinion, that allows the reader to better know and understand the characters.
I have to admit, I get distracted when I’m reading a book and the writing style is such that I get the feeling that English is a second language for the author. I find myself constantly telling myself it would have been easier to understand had it been written this way, or had they not hesitated to use contractions. Am I being overly picky?
As I throw my hands in the air in admission that I completely understand that I am by no means the most accomplished writer, and that anyone who has ever written anything at all can either take or leave my criticisms, I must stress that I’ve been an avid reader since I first learned to read. And I know what I like to read as well as what doesn’t appeal to me at all. Really, aren’t we all like that?
What distracts you from the joy of reading?
Related articles
- 5 Editing Tips To Polish Your Writing (seventeenmagness.wordpress.com)
- Writing dialogue: the accepted way of talking to yourself. (tismond.wordpress.com)
- Dialogue. …tips on getting it just right. (neilsehmbhy.wordpress.com)
Filed under: writing | Tagged: Amazon Kindle, Dialogue, reading, writing |
Run4joy59's Blog 
Glad you’re back!
A writer’s style makes or breaks a book for me. That means if I don’t like the style I don’t go past the first paragraph. It may be the result of constantly editing my own work. I like to read without thinking how the writing could be better. If I do that, I lose the story.
I agree with you about natural dialog. I won’t give you my list of dislikes at this point. Maybe on demand.
Good post – thanks.
I’m with you on that one…I get really frustrated when I’m distracted from the story because of the writing…thanks for checking in on me!
Spelling and grammatical errors distract me, too. Also bothersome are sentences that need to be read more than once to understand what the writer is trying to say.
Exactly!